Óscar Mulero — Muscle and Mind ♠ One of Spain's premier techno DJs, Óscar Mulero is also an accomplished producer who founded his own label, Warm Up Recordings, and occasionally released music on prestigious techno labels including Theory Recordings and Tresor. Based in Madrid, Mulero got into music during the 1980s, initially British goth rock bands such as the Cure, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, and Fields of the Nephilim, followed later in the decade by electronic body music (EBM) acts such as Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and A Split Second.Location: Gijón (Asturies), SpainAlbum release: April 20th, 2015Record Label: PoleGroupDuration: 69:04 +Tracks:CD1: Muscle And Mind 01. Mind–Body Interaction 3:0202. Dualistic Concept 8:53 03. Involuntary Response 5:16 04. Anatomical Variation 5:38 05. Mentally Induced Action 6:3706. Interrelated 5:50 07. Mindful Body 5:48 08. 201 Element 6:3009. Mechanical Function 6:1710. Muscle and Mind 6:0111. Mental Causation 4:0012. Unconscious 5:12CD2: Dualistic Concept01. Stimulated Reflex 02. Mechanical Function (Hypnotic Edit) 03. Muscle and Mind (SHXCXCHCXSH Remix) 04. Mentally Induced Action (Stanislav Tolkachev Remix) 05. Stimulated Reflex (Stanislav Tolkachev Remix) Description:♠ Muscle And Mind is the Spanish techno producer's fourth full–length in as many years. It follows well–received efforts on Detroit Underground and Mulero's own Warm Up Recordings, both of which showcased a bleak, moody and hypnotic sound. The new album features a mixture of ambient and gloomy club–ready fare, and will come out on CD and vinyl. A separate vinyl package called Dualistic Concept featuring reworks from SHXCXCHCXSH and Stanislav Tolkachev, which appear on a second CD, will be released alongside the album. REVIEWBy Daryl Keating, Published Apr 17, 2015; Score: 8♠ The concept album seems to be back in full swing, in terms of electronic music, at least. But while some albums are tackling grand narratives, Óscar Mulero's latest record travels a much simpler path: the relationship between music's harder elements (the muscle), and its more ambient aspects (mind). Considering the techno bastion that Mulero is, one might assume that his latest, Muscle and Mind, is all muscle, but once you fully immerse yourself in the record, its mind begins take shape. ♠ The album's brawn is sitting front and centre, as one might expect. Tracks like "Mentally Induced Action" and "Dualistic Concept" are no–nonsense techno at its finest: dark, rhythmic and hypnotically pounding. They are a necessary force in driving Muscle and Mind forward, but accompanying them underneath the hood are far more interesting components. "Anatomical Variation," "Element" and the album's title track, for example, play host to the scattered beats and haunting sounds of IDM, which act as a bridge between the muscle and the mind by having feet planted in both camps. The album's tail end then goes a step further toward the brain, with purely ambient tracks "Mental Causation" and "Unconscious," the latter of which steadily gets bigger and warmer until its peak, making for a reflective end to an album that's got far more depth to it than its techno surface would have you believe. ♠ http://exclaim.ca/Artist Biography by Jason Birchmeier♠ One of Spain's premier techno DJs, Óscar Mulero is also an accomplished producer who founded his own label, Warm Up Recordings, and occasionally released music on prestigious techno labels including Theory Recordings and Tresor. Based in Madrid, Mulero got into music during the 1980s, initially British goth rock bands such as the Cure, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, and Fields of the Nephilim, followed later in the decade by electronic body music (EBM) acts such as Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and A Split Second. Around the turn of the decade, Mulero established himself as a popular techno DJ in Madrid, first as a resident at the New World club and then, more notably, as a resident at another pioneering Madrid techno club, the Omen. His style at the time was based upon Detroit techno (e.g., Underground Resistance) and the IDM sound of Warp Records (e.g., Aphex Twin), as well as the German hard trance of Harthouse (e.g., Hardfloor) and the ambient output of Fax +49-69/450464 (e.g., Pete Namlook); in time his style would fall more in line with the productions of Jeff Mills and Surgeon.♠ In 1996 Mulero performed at the third annual Sónar music festival in Barcelona, an honor that firmly established him as one of Spain's premier techno DJs. A mix album, About Discipline and Education, followed in 1998 for the Spanish label So Dens, and so did a lot of international DJ gigs. In 2000 Mulero founded Warm Up Recordings, and began releasing a series of 12" EPs including Medical Mesh (2000), Sans Souci (2000), Floodland (2001), Learning to Be a Machine (2002), CV Is Dead (2002), The Nine (2003), Pro–Files (2004), Art & Strategy (2004), 46 (2007), and Implant (2007). He later founded a subsidiary label, Pole Recordings, in 2004 and began releasing additional 12" EPs including The Damage Done (2004), Primary Instincts (2004), and El Silencio Habla (2005). Over the years Mulero also released his productions on a variety of other labels including Tsunami Records (Offshore, 2001; The Damage Done, Pt. 2, 2004), Theory Recordings (In Bad Company, 2002; Oblivion/Anaconda, 2002; Anaconda Remixes, 2004), and Tresor (Only Dead Fish Go with the Flow, 2007).:: http://www.allmusic.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR7YXs22dNELabel/Bandcamp: https://polegroup.bandcamp.com/Website: http://oscarmulero.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/oscarmuleroFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/dj.oscarmuleroPress: press@polegroup.netAgent: info@polegroup.net